COLOURS OF MY WORLD

Today was a sobering day for me.
One of those days that you have - too rarely I believe- that causes you to take stock of your world.
Today a friend and I spent the day delivering items sewn by members of the ACWA ( a bit like the Women's Institute in the UK )   
and I came home and felt LUCKY.
Lucky that I am healthy.
Lucky that I can WALK and TALK and FEED myself and COMB my hair.
Lucky that I HAVE hair.

Today we delivered turbans to the Cancer Council for women undergoing chemotherapy whose hair has gone.
Today we delivered catheter bag covers and wheelchair bags to sufferers of MS whose independence has slowly been taken from them by this terrible disease.

So I came home and looked around and felt LUCKY.

These are the colours of my  world.

                                                        GREEN

RED

YELLOW

PINK

BLUE

ORANGE

BLACK

WHITE

PURPLE

... and I am LUCKY that I can see them.

WEEK END AWAY

OutinsOur main objective was Grafton and the Jacarandas but to get there we also visited Yamba.

.

Yamba is a sleepy coastal town in northern New South Wales.

We found it pretty slow and boring actually with not much to interest us.

But on our way home we called in to Byron Bay.

What a gem!

 No wonder the young folk love it so much.

Green grass to sunbake on ......

Beautiful beaches.......

..... lovely white sand......

 ...safe swimming with Lifesavers and blue, blue waves .....

... but watch out for sunburn. That sun was HOT !

And if you are looking for surfie clothes or something nice to eat and not too expensive there is plenty to choose from here.

Cape Byron is the eastern most point of Australia and therefore has a lighthouse high on the point.

We parked the car and climbed up to see the view........

 ..........  and the views from here were outstanding.

Just look at that blue, blue sea.

Nearly as good as our Queensland beaches! (I'll show you some of those another day )

LOVE THOSE JACARANDAS!

In Brisbane, the kids at High School and Uni students know it is end of year exam time when they see the beautiful Jacaranda trees beginning to shower the streets of Brisbane with vibrant purple petals.

 The town of Grafton in New South Wales has taken the celebration of this beautiful tree to a new level with the Grafton Jacaranda Festival. We visited Grafton for the first time this weekend and this is what we saw ....

A week of heavy rain had knocked the majority of flowers from the trees, but the sight was still spectacular.

Long avenues of purple disappear into the distance ......

......... and purple flowers carpet the grass beneath them

Breath-taking aren't they?

THINKING ABOUT BIRDS

Today was a scorcher - about 34 degrees and while I was giving the parched plants in the backyard a little water to get them through 'til the promised storms tomorrow, I listened to the sound of the lorikeets at dusk.

Noisy aren't they?

They seem to fill the treetops with their chatter. There are so many of them too. I used to feed them every day when we were at our last house. Just a little bread and sugar and they come in droves, tell their mates and bring them along too. And they love to have a bath- dive in and get really wet.

Sometimes the cockatoos would join them.

We still have them visiting our garden here because we have all the native plants they love.

The kookaburras visit us here too - and always manage to wake visitors at dawn with their laughing while they challenge eachother and claim their territory !

But we have to go a little further afield to see these beauties, they love the rainforest areas.

.

Aren't we lucky to have such lovely birds?

OLD AND NEW

My good friend has asked me to make her a birthday card for a special person - her Mother. It's for a milestone birthday, her 80th.

This lady's name is Rose so choosing the colour was easy.

Finished.

 Happy Birthday Rose

There's plenty of new life to be seen around the garden now that we've had a little rain.

 My precious Caladiums, the ones I put aside each year when they die off at the end of Summer, are beginning to poke their shoots up once again.

Won't be long before the pots are full of pretty pink and green leaves.

STUFF AND NONSENSE

NONSENSE!

Today I've been fooling around on the internet and I came upon this fun thing to do. You just need a whole lot of text - say from your blog - to create this bit of nonsense.

Don't know quite what to do with it next but it could lend itself to a nice card if you typed in a lot of nice words.

I think I'll put it in my "to do" list.
You'll just have to wait to see what I come up with.
(go to http://www.wordle.net/ if you want to try it yourself )

STUFF!

When I  was preparing my lunch .......

 (and by the way, it was quite yummy and oh so healthy don't you think?)

I got to thinking about my mug.
No, not my face, 

 THIS MUG!

You see, it's my souvenir mug from last year's trip to England.
Take another look.

                      

See, to me it was typical of the England we loved, so it was the ideal choice for my souvenir mug collection.

Here are some others from my collection.

 

Canada                                        Scotland

Next year I hope to have a souvenir mug from   France !